This invention relates to an electrical connector to be mounted to a printed circuit board and, in particular, to an electrical connector of a thin type.
In a conventional electrical connector, especially, a receptacle for receiving a plug connector, an insulator block is formed with a rectangular fitting hole or a mating portion 2 for receiving the plug connector as a mating connector. A plurality of contacts 3 are fixed to the insulator block and arranged in a row in the rectangular fitting hole. The insulator block is covered with a metallic shell fitted onto an outer surface of the insulator block.
However, miniaturization of the electrical connector of this kind is demanded in order to small-size an electronic device using the connector. Especially, it is required reduce a height of the electrical connector on a printed circuit board equipped in a liquid crystal display of a personal computer.
In order to respond the demand, the insulator block is small-sized so that the wall defining the fitting hole is reduced in the thickness. However, this results in reduced strength of the wall defining the mating portion of the connector. Therefore, reduction of the size of the insulator block is limited because excessive small size may cause damage of the wall on connection and/or disconnection with the mating connector.
Another approach is known in the art where, taking into consideration that the lower surface of the electrical connector is disposed on the printed circuit board, the lower portion of the electrical connector is omitted to reduce the height of the electrical connector on the printed circuit board. However, the mating portion is opened at the lower side so that contacts are exposed toward the surface of the printed circuit board. Therefore, it is necessary to make a sufficient distance between the contacts and the printed circuit board so that the contacts are contaminated with or undesirably adhered to solder on a soldering process for connecting the electric connector and other parts onto the printed circuit board. Accordingly, sufficient reduction of size cannot be realized.